March 12ECI SCORE: Starting a Small Business
3 to 5:30 p.m.
Champaign County
Chamber of Commerce,
303 W. Kirby Ave., Champaign
Review the advantages, hazards and requirements of starting a small business. Cost: $25. To register, go to eci-score.org or call
217-359-1791. Email questions to info@eci-score.org.

March 19Giving Recognition
8 a.m. to noon
Parkland College Business Training, 1315 N. Mattis Ave., Champaign
By recognizing and reinforcing positive behaviors, managers can encourage and reinvigorate individual contributors to repeat the behaviors that lead to positive results. Learn about the impact of recognition, barriers to giving recognition, key actions for giving recognition, tailoring recognition to the recipient, and planning and practicing recognition. Fee: $199. Registration deadline: March 12.

March 19Get Control of Email and Get Organized
1 to 5 p.m. March 19,
8 a.m. to noon March 25
Parkland College Business Training, 1315 N. Mattis Ave., Champaign
Discover how to get more done; increase productivity by eliminating unnecessary email; organize your inbox; create effective messages; discover time-saving tips; improve email etiquette; reduce legal liability; choose the best communication tool; organize information; find and locate information quickly; make better decisions with the right information; and create an ordered, stress-free folder structure.
Materials include workbooks, desktop reference tools, calculator and a copy of the best-selling"The Hamster Revolution: How to Manage Email Before it Manages You," with foreword by Ken Blanchard.
Fee: $199. Registration deadline: March 12 for March 19 class; March 18 for March 25 class.

March 26ECI SCORE: Financing a Small Business
3 to 5:30 p.m.
Champaign County Chamber of Commerce, 303 W. Kirby Ave., Champaign
Content includes business requirements, preparation needed and sources of capital. Workbook provided. Cost: $25. To register, go to eci-score.org or call 217-359-1791. Email questions to info@eci-score.org.

COVER STORY February 2015

THEY CAN BUILD IT

Ken Cooley and his ShapeMaster crew take on varied and unusual projects

By Don Dodson
The News-Gazette

Dream up a part, and there's a good chance Ken Cooley and his crew at ShapeMaster Inc. can fabricate it.

Heaven knows they've made some unusual things in their time -- a piggy bank in the form of a portable toilet, an adjustable-height podium for pastors, a piglet cage for animal researchers.

And perhaps the strangest of all: a clear, life-size doll box for a Star Trek fan who wanted to go to a Comic-Con convention as a packaged Star Trek action figure. Go figure!

Although ShapeMaster caters to inventors and entrepreneurs who need prototypes made, the Ogden-based company also manufactures larger runs of products, including components for dehumidifiers, cup holders for Porsches and after-market motorcycle accessories for Suzukis and Harley-Davidsons.

Cooley started ShapeMaster 25 years ago when he realized there was a need for thermoform molding.

"I knew it was difficult for people to get plastic molded parts," he said.

For inventors, entrepreneurs and engineers who wanted their ideas transformed into plastic reality, "this was a way for them to gain access to inexpensive tooling and short-run production parts," he said.

Thermoform molding was more affordable than injection molding. And unlike many other companies, ShapeMaster was willing to do high-precision work and make small parts in small runs, he said.

ShapeMaster's services grew to include vacuum forming, drape forming, CNC machining and routing, design, custom fabrication, powder coating and rapid prototyping. Cooley built a few machines, and in other cases, bought machines and improved on them. Now the company works not only with plastic, but with wood, metal and other materials as well.

Today, ShapeMaster has about 25 on the payroll, with 12 to 16 there on any given day. The rest are part-time employees, many of them retirees, who are called in when the workload demands it.

During a recent week, Cooley estimated the company had at least eight projects going on in its shop -- including making molds for carbon fiber wheels for the University of Illinois Formula One racing team.

Much of ShapeMaster's work comes from a five-state region, but the company ships everywhere in the U.S. and to many countries overseas.

Prototype-related work makes up about 20 percent of ShapeMaster's business, and the company's own products account for about 10 percent. Those products include:

-- Radiator covers for Suzuki motorcycles, as well as riser blocks for the handlebars.

-- Brackets that support swing arm bags on Harley-Davidson motorcycles.

-- The popular portable-toilet piggy banks.

Cooley estimated ShapeMaster's sales at $2 million in 2014, roughly double that of 2013. He said 2012 was also a good year, partly because ShapeMaster engineered and designed protective guards for machines at a Glaxo-SmithKline plant in Memphis that makes Polident.

ShapeMaster's facilities in Ogden include two buildings that collectively have 14,000 square feet. When a tornado hit Ogden in 1996, the company suffered $36,000 in damage, "but we didn't lose an hour of production," Cooley said.

Cooley, who believes the company could really use 30,000 to 40,000 square feet, said he thought of moving the company to Champaign-Urbana, but concluded the current location serves employees well.

"I like the quiet of Ogden," he said.

Besides, "employees would find it much more difficult to drive into Champaign-Urbana," he said, noting that employees commute from Homer, Brocton, Tilton and other area towns.

"If we were in Champaign, do I think I could attract new business?" he said. "Yes, but would it be enough to justify it?"

Cooley cited two inflection points that influenced the growth of his business.

One came in the mid-1990s with the success of Water Island, a business that provided reverse-osmosis water dispensers to supermarkets. ShapeMaster made many of the components for those dispensers.

Another burst in business came in 2005 when Hurricane Katrina boosted demand for dehumidifiers, for which ShapeMaster made parts.

More information about ShapeMaster can be found at the company's website, shape-master.com.

Fresh edition of CIB

By John Foreman

No matter how long I live in East Central Illinois, I never cease to
marvel at the innovative and diverse nature of its business community. Innovators seem to flourish in every corner.

Don Dodson, the Champaign-Urbana News-Gazette's longtime business
editor, was among those friends to whom we turned to put out this issue of Central Illinois' favorite business magazine while we continue our search for a top-notch editor. Many people pitched in to make this edition
possible, and I won't try to name them all for fear of missing someone. My job is simply to look at the finished product and introduce it to you.

I don't think you'll be disappointed.

Where, for example, would you go to find a piggy bank in the form of a portable toilet or a box for a life-size Star Trek action figure? The answer is in Ogden and ShapeMaster Inc.

And would you like to try a brew that won a Silver Medal in the 2014 World Beer Cup?

You needn't venture farther than Savoy. You'll find that story on page 8.

All that, plus more and lots of fresh stats, are inside.

Best wishes for a 2015 as robust as that microbrewed ale.

John Foreman is the former publisher of Central Illinois Business magazine.